


Burn in the Fire (watch me bid you goodbye)

by Amber_Flicker



Series: A Song of Snow and Fire [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Control Issues, Episode: s02e22 Invincible, Episode: s02e23 The Race of His Life, Gen, I hurt cait too much lately, Light Angst, Nightmares, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Violent Thoughts, hints of Dark!caitlin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-27
Updated: 2016-08-27
Packaged: 2018-08-11 05:08:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7877725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amber_Flicker/pseuds/Amber_Flicker
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every power has its side effect.</p>
<p>Caitlin may have gotten away, but she can't completely escape Zoom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burn in the Fire (watch me bid you goodbye)

**Author's Note:**

> Follows the season finale for the most part, but Barry's annual timeline fuck-up doesn't happen.
> 
> Title from Up In Flames by Icon For Hire

"Caitlin!" Everyone looked up as Barry, Cisco, and Iris rushed into the Cortex. She barely heard Henry telling them her condition. He didn't know. No one knew yet. She wasn't in shock, not really. She was just... angry at _him._ Didn't feel as traumatized as she should, though she knew that would come eventually. She didn't come back to reality until Barry was in front of her, asking how she got away.

"I... It's a little hard to explain." She said, voice still shaky from adrenaline and the rush of feeling her powers, and the lack of use over the past few days. She didn't feel any lingering fear. Caitlin felt unstoppable, fire flowing through her veins and- She didn't know how to tell them. These people who she'd thought, prior to twenty minutes ago, were all gone. "He told me.. he told me you were dead."

"I'm not. I'm here, we're all here." 

She nodded, glanced upwards. "I have something I need to tell- _show_ you." She stood, legs pulling energy from her new powers instead of shaking like they should've. Now or never. Her hands lit up. Everyone took a step back, shocked, and she let the flames die out.

"What- how?" Cisco, voicing what they were all thinking. He was going to want to explore these powers, later. Probably come up with a name as well.

"I'm not sure. It just- happened. So I melted the handcuffs and escaped." She couldn't help thinking back to the white-hot glow of the metal as it fell away. "He-" The words caught in her throat- "Zoom doesn't know."

"He'll be coming after you, then." Harry said.

"No, I don't think so. He's... from what I could tell, he's bringing people over from Earth-2. Metas. I don't know what he's planning, I left before he could say anything about it. But I think he'll be too busy to worry about me escaping."

"It's okay. We'll figure it out, but you need to get some rest. Come on." Barry took her out of the room, careful not to startle her by using his powers. She wanted to argue that she should stay and help, but decided it wasn't worth it. It was more important to get get some sleep to make up for the sleep she lost during her captivity, recharge. Then... they were going after Zoom.

***

She jerked away. No, not yet, he couldn't be here, she was supposed to be _safe-_

"Caitlin!"

Then- then he wasn't there. Fuck (and she didn't swear often, but this situation seemed to warrant it). Caitlin had expected trauma, it would be _odd_ if she didn't have PTSD after that, but it hadn't prepared her for how vivid and real it had seemed. How much it would affect her. She blinked back tears before they could fall.

She heard her name said again, a little louder. That's when she realized the hallucination had caused her to lose control briefly. She rushed to put out the fire, thankful she hadn't been working with flammable chemicals. "...Sorry."

"What happened?" Cisco looked worried.

"I-" What was she supposed to say? That she was seeing things that weren't there? "It's nothing. I just thought I saw something. It- it's fine."

"It's not nothing if you're setting stuff on fire." He said, obviously not impressed with Caitlin closing herself off.

" _Let it go,_ Cisco." The intensity in her voice made him shut up and go back to his own work. She felt a little guilty for snapping at him. She knew he was only worried, trying to help, but it was _irritating._ Everything seemed to be getting on her nerves since the powers emerged, and it was getting increasingly difficult to keep the emotions from boiling over. She didn't know if the two were related, or if this was from the whole situation. Caitlin was usually so good at keeping calm. She just hoped that killi- _stopping_ Zoom would make it go away.

***

In the end, Caitlin wasn't the one who stopped him. Which was, as frustrated as it made her, probably a good thing. She didn't know if she would have been able to stop herself, if she'd gotten ahold of him- **no.** She was not a killer. Where were all these mood swings coming from? What was _wrong_ with her?

She couldn't be around S.T.A.R for a while, at least not while Flash activities were going on- though those had ceased for a while too, Barry himself too exhausted and miserable to fight. They'd found early on how deeply affected she was by the events of the past weeks, to the extent that being around a speedster sent her into flashbacks or startled her into setting something aflame. She knew Barry would _never_ do anything to her, but it was reflex. So she took a break from it all, trying to calm her restless emotions and fully figure out her powers.

When she did meet up with her friends, she didn't mention the nightmares. What she faced each night varied- memories of what really happened, alternate scenarios where it was even worse for her, the times she ended up dead. But those, they weren't the reason she never brought it up. She was sure it was known by all of them that she had these. No, it was the _other_ ones. The ones where she made her escape by killing him. The ones where she was the one who ended it, not a race. The ones where she _burned him alive._ Caitlin dreamed of misplaced passion in the form of fire, and the dangerous force of nature that she could be. 

And the worst part was, she wasn't sure whether they were nightmares at all.

**Author's Note:**

> This is going in a bit of a different direction that I'd planned originally. There was going to be a showdown between Caitlin and Hunter that probably ended with him dead and then the drama that brings, I decided to go with this instead. Which... is just as dark, but it will lead to very different events now. Don't worry friends, Cait will get a happy ending eventually.
> 
> Say hello at http://cliches-and-coffee.tumblr.com/


End file.
